describe how the school and parents can
work together to help students achieve
the state’s standards.
For most schools, compacts are a
missed opportunity. As Judy Carson—
who supports family engagement
in Connecticut schools—found in
reviewing compacts submitted by
the state’s schools, such documents
rarely described activities that directly
affect learning. Most compacts parroted general language in the law
about parents’ responsibility to support
children’s learning, for example, by
monitoring their school attendance
Imagine if parents
could hear directly
from teachers what
teachers believe
their kids most
need to learn.
or their TV watching. And most were
gathering dust on the shelf. This is
true across the United States; a report
from the U.S. Department of Education
concluded that the parent involvement
requirements, including compacts, are
one of the weakest areas of Title I compliance (Stevenson &
© SUSIE FITZHUGH
Laster, 2008).
Research shows that all students benefit from family
involvement in education, and low-income and minority
students benefit the most (Henderson & Mapp, 2002). Most
parents want timely information about school goals and
learning strategies so they’ll know what to do at home to
support their children’s achievement. This is the kind of infor-
mation compacts were intended to provide—but a document
asking parents to pledge that they’ll get their kids to bed on
time doesn’t provide it. So Carson and several colleagues
in Connecticut’s Department of Education decided that if
school-family compacts have to be created, schools should
use the process to spark authentic conversations and listen
to parents’ ideas about learning.
